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Brandon Sanderson / Re: Religion in Mistborn and Elantris --AML do-over (SPOILERS)
« on: January 23, 2009, 08:41:02 PM »
jjb, I can see the irony now that you point it out. 
I get it, but I'm a believer anyway. And darxbane, thanks for sticking up for me. No worries--I'm not here to pick a fight or take offense where none was intended (or even where it was intended. Life is too short.)
I am indeed a Mormon--the Association for Mormon Letters is an organization dedicated to studying and discussion of Mormon literature. Brandon's session was by far my favorite at the conference. I write and edit for Segullah: Writings by Latter-day Saint Women, which is a journal of memoir/essays/poetry, and so I went to the conference with a bunch of my Segullah friends, one of whom is a big Brandon Sanderson fan.
Vatdoro, thanks for the podcast link. I should have a chance to listen to it while I am resting my leg and my kids are at school (I'm a SAHM).
What I'm interested in is not just the ways Mormon themes show up in Brandon's books, but really the role of religion in all of them. Heck, you could write a paper analyzing religion's role in his worlds. In some of the fantasy I've read (and I'm admittedly not super well read. Not enough of a scholar to fit in the AML, not up to speed with fantasy either. sigh. But I enjoy dabbling in both.) whatever operating magic exists in the world becomes the religion, but it's not organized or formal, no priests or systems. Brandon's books not only sustain systems of magic, but also reference many different fully organized religions (if you include all the ones Sazed maintains).
Not only do you have well-developed religions, you also have so many different characters' responses to religion.
Vatdoro mentioned that Brandon deliberately creates characters who have beliefs different than his own. This is true. However, he still focuses on characters who wrestle with belief, who die for it, who choose faith, who kill their god, who convert, who create their own religion. His characters revolve around their relationship to religion.
I get it, but I'm a believer anyway. And darxbane, thanks for sticking up for me. No worries--I'm not here to pick a fight or take offense where none was intended (or even where it was intended. Life is too short.)I am indeed a Mormon--the Association for Mormon Letters is an organization dedicated to studying and discussion of Mormon literature. Brandon's session was by far my favorite at the conference. I write and edit for Segullah: Writings by Latter-day Saint Women, which is a journal of memoir/essays/poetry, and so I went to the conference with a bunch of my Segullah friends, one of whom is a big Brandon Sanderson fan.
Vatdoro, thanks for the podcast link. I should have a chance to listen to it while I am resting my leg and my kids are at school (I'm a SAHM).
What I'm interested in is not just the ways Mormon themes show up in Brandon's books, but really the role of religion in all of them. Heck, you could write a paper analyzing religion's role in his worlds. In some of the fantasy I've read (and I'm admittedly not super well read. Not enough of a scholar to fit in the AML, not up to speed with fantasy either. sigh. But I enjoy dabbling in both.) whatever operating magic exists in the world becomes the religion, but it's not organized or formal, no priests or systems. Brandon's books not only sustain systems of magic, but also reference many different fully organized religions (if you include all the ones Sazed maintains).
Not only do you have well-developed religions, you also have so many different characters' responses to religion.
Vatdoro mentioned that Brandon deliberately creates characters who have beliefs different than his own. This is true. However, he still focuses on characters who wrestle with belief, who die for it, who choose faith, who kill their god, who convert, who create their own religion. His characters revolve around their relationship to religion.